Meanwhile, a faint, uniquely feminine fragrance slipped into his nostrils, inexplicably adding a touch of fluster to his nerves.
You'd never guess this guy had what it took to save the world, Bulma thought to herself.
Then she asked him outright, "Tell me, will Goku save the world in the future?"
"Uh..."
At that, Raditz visibly relaxed.
Phew... I thought the Fortune Teller Baba had revealed my secret.
He suddenly realized that the Fortune Teller Baba must have foreseen some future in which Goku saved the world.
The prophecy might even have included him.
After all, Raditz believed that as long as he kept training diligently and got a little help from the system, his future battle power would certainly be impressive.
"Don't worry! Even if Goku can't save the world, I definitely can!" Raditz declared, thumping his chest.
"When the time comes, I'll handle any crisis. You can all just stay safely behind me."
Whether anyone else believed him or not, Raditz certainly did.
Gradually, he sank into his own fantasies, as if he could already see himself effortlessly wiping out all the powerful enemies of the future.
"Heh heh heh..."
Bulma looked at Raditz, who was grinning foolishly to himself, with disdain. She couldn't help wondering why his nose looked so pointy.
How was this guy supposed to be someone who could save the world?
"This is the spot."
Raditz parked the aircraft at the location of the spaceship the Fortune Teller Baba had told him about.
Time had passed, and there was no sign left of the ship's impact. No one would have guessed that an alien spaceship was buried beneath the layers of dirt.
To keep the ship from being damaged, Raditz dug it out with his bare hands.
He'd done similar things while training on the island, plowing fields and digging trenches with his bare hands. It was easy for him.
Before long, he had dug out a spherical machine.
"This is the spaceship?"
Bulma looked at the orb-shaped object, which could barely fit one person, in surprise.
"Yeah."
Raditz felt along the outer hull of the ship. When he pressed a button that looked like a switch, the spaceship slowly opened.
"Huh? There's nobody inside? I thought there might be a corpse or something," Bulma said, puzzled by the empty interior.
"Maybe they escaped."
Raditz didn't explain further. He carefully searched the ship for something in particular.
Since it was a Saiyan spaceship, there should be one particular item aboard: a Scouter.
He wasn't disappointed. Before long, he found a device in one corner of the ship that could be worn over the ear.
"What's this?"
"An alien Scouter. It might have a listening device, and we don't know the language, so let's not turn it on yet."
"Bulma, can you repair it?"
"I'll give it a try. Let's head back to West City first."
As Dr. Brief's daughter and a gifted scientist in her own right, Bulma was very interested in such an intact piece of alien technology.
The two didn't waste any more time. They loaded the spaceship onto the aircraft and headed back to West City.
"Doctor, this is the spaceship."
"Just a heads-up: that remote might have a self-destruct button. Don't blow it up."
Raditz remembered that Bulma had done just that in the original story from his previous life, remotely blowing up the spaceship, so he felt he had to warn her.
Bulma quickly set down the remote she'd just been about to press, glancing around awkwardly.
"I'll leave the rest to you, Doctor. I hope I get to see the results of your research soon."
The next day.
Raditz asked Bulma whether she still wanted to go with him to collect the Dragon Balls. After she said no, he prepared to set off alone.
According to Bulma, rather than run around collecting Dragon Balls with him only to get nothing out of the wish, she'd rather stay home and study the newly acquired spaceship with her dad and broaden her horizons.
"Funny, I could've sworn someone said she was bored at home and wanted to come with me," Raditz grumbled, recalling their conversation.
"But..."
"Bulma really is a genius. She cracked the alien language system in just one day. No wonder she'll invent the Time Machine in the future."
Raditz looked at the Scouter in his hand, now restored to pristine condition.
He switched it on and put it over his left ear.
A string of numbers immediately appeared on the lens in front of his eye.
"170, 163, 120, 111, 110..."
"Hmm... It also shows coordinates and distance, and the battle power readings are base levels."
"Battle power 170... That should be Goku..."
"120 in that direction is Master Mutten..."
"111 and 110 are Krillin and Yamcha."
"163 should be Tien Shinhan."
"And..."
Raditz turned to face another direction.
"150, 310, 290."
"Talin the Immortal, and... Kami and Mr. Popo."
"310..."
That made them the strongest of all the top fighters currently on Earth.
After guessing the identities of the people with battle power over a hundred, Raditz grew curious about his own reading.
Still, it probably wouldn't exceed a hundred. He couldn't ignore the fact that he was just an apprentice martial artist who hadn't even been training for two years.
"Things have to be done one at a time. I won't worry about battle power until I get the key item."
"First, I'll collect the Dragon Balls..."
He took off the Scouter, checked the Dragon Radar for the nearest Dragon Ball, and turned up the aircraft's power as he flew toward it.
Raditz had originally thought this Dragon Ball hunt would be an exciting, perilous adventure.
Unfortunately, the opposite was true.
There were no other powerful opponents hunting Dragon Balls at this point, which made the trip feel rather dull.
He hadn't even run into the Pilaf Gang, who had often interfered with Goku and the others' Dragon Ball hunts.
The Dragon Balls were hidden in all sorts of strange places, but none of them were dangerous.
The most dangerous moment came when he encountered a giant carnivorous dragon. Just as it opened its cavernous jaws to swallow Raditz whole, he blasted through its head with an energy wave.
That night.
A bright campfire flared in the silent woods, with a huge monster-dragon skewered and roasting over the flames.
As his strength increased, so did Raditz's appetite. Even this giant dragon would only be enough for one meal.
The food still needed time to cook. Raditz checked the locations of the final two Dragon Balls. One was the Four-Star Ball, which was currently moving rapidly across the radar.
"Goku sure has gone far. He's made it all the way to the other side of the planet."
"I'll collect the closer one first. But is some animal carrying it around?"
The closer Dragon Ball on the radar was moving slowly too.
"Never mind. I won't travel any farther tonight. I'll check it out tomorrow."
After daybreak, Raditz packed up and set off again.
After traveling for a while, the radar showed that the Dragon Ball was less than a hundred meters away. Raditz then spotted someone sitting by a campfire in the distance, eating fish by the mouthful.